


healing touch

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Alternate Universe, No Romance, Other, this isn't finished but idk how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21964405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: The world went to shit a while ago, and in the wake of monsters murdering pretty much everyone he knows, Neku is discovering things - like powers, and the ability to stand the presence of other people and share a space with them.
Relationships: Misaki Shiki & Sakuraba Neku
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I've got two chapters written for this, will definitely end up writing more, but for now it's on hiatus I'm just posting it because I can.  
> And just in case the tags didn't make it clear: NO ROMANCE! Not yet at least but I really don't plan for any so. Yeah.

> **The End Of The World.**
> 
> **Week Six, Day 3**
> 
> **Unknown Location, Shibuya**

The world, simply put, was going to Hell.

Now, seeing as Neku Sakuraba had always been rather pessimistic and his adolescence had for the most part so far been spent believing he was already  _ in _ Hell, it spoke to the severity of the situation that he was now quite willing to admit that the world had not, in fact, been so bad before. Everything had sort of been ambiguously shitty, sure, and he’d hated his fair share of people and situations… But he hadn’t been in Hell. The worst he’d ever been through didn’t even compare to what he was going through now. Honestly, he’d give anything to just go back to where he’d been before, smack past him in the mouth, and tell him to suck it up because he had it pretty fuckin’ good, thanks-so-much. At least back then he’d known he was going to be able to eat every day, and he had somewhere to go home to.

But he digressed.

Point was, if things in his life and the world around him had been shitty  _ before _ , he was in a veritable  _ sea _ of shit  _ now. _ His worst problem in the past was  _ probably _ that he wasn’t terribly social and didn’t like it when he was forced to interact with people. He preferred to be by himself, you know? And other people didn’t tend to understand the simple and oh so fucking underrated art of casual silence. They always needed to talk. Always needed to make sure he was paying attention to them.

He’d give anything to have  _ that _ be his biggest problem now.

As it was, though, there wasn’t anything he could do to change his situation―not that he was surprised, of course. Even if he was what most adults considered “incredibly bright” and “overly observant”, he wasn’t in any position to put his brains to good use.

He was, after all, just six months shy of his 18th birthday, in the middle of what he was  _ pretty _ sure qualified as the fucking  _ apocalypse _ , on his own except for the occasional interactions with other survivors, and still coming to terms with a lot of things; not least of which was the fact that his parents were  _ dead. _ They had been for more than a month now.

That was weird.

He was pretty sure he’d be more recognizably upset if, you know, he was capable of processing emotions like a normal person and wasn’t  _ literally dealing with the apocalypse. _

That wasn’t the only thing he was having trouble coming to terms with, of course, because if that was all he’d be fucking  _ set, _ but it was certainly the easiest one to try ot make sense of.

He puffed out a breath as he vaulted over a low wall, dashing for cover as soon as he landed. Peeking out from his hiding place, he observed the open area before him. Blessedly, it was empty, and he slipped back out of his hiding place. He kept an eye out for any danger as he crossed the area. It was just as nerve-wracking now as it was every other time for the past few weeks.

Ducking into the shop that had been his aim, he hunted around the stock to see what all he could make off with. Some cheap clothes, a new bag to hold things in, a few packages of whatever food was on the shelf... He couldn’t afford to be picky right now. The clothes were ugly and he wasn’t sure if he liked any of the flavors he’d grabbed, but it would all have to do for now.

He lucked out when he was able to get into the back room of the store and snag the electric kettle left behind by the workers. The water throughout the city still worked fine, and he was sure he could find somewhere to hunker down for a while that would have working electricity. It made food much easier for him.

He was able, as well, to find an abandoned insulated lunchbox in the fridge with an icepack still in the bottom. It wasn’t frozen, but he wasn’t in any hurry. He put the whole thing in the freezer and took the liberty of using the microwave to fix himself something to eat. Hot food was a precious, much needed resource that he took advantage of every time he got the chance.

Hell, if need be, he’d sleep in this room tonight. It’d certainly take the hassle out of finding somewhere to sleep, because he was pretty sure he’d seen a very small selection of camping stuff out in the main store, and camping stuff  _ usually _ meant sleeping bags around here… Not that this store was known, in the past, to sell camping gear. He imagined they’d probably just thrown what they could get their hands on into the selection once things started going to shit.

He popped out to investigate the selection and eventually made off with two sleeping bags. Maybe if he got the chance, he’d raid a bigger store with a better selection and some pillows and blankets. Once he found a more permanent place to settle down he could probably afford to start furnishing it with stuff like that.

And on that note, there was this place nearby he’d been scoping out for a couple of days, now, that looked to be pretty abandoned and out of the eye of the monsters that were so keen on tormenting every living thing they came across. It looked fairly easy to fortify, and if he could just find someone with a little more upper body strength than he had he could get a real door set up on the place instead of the empty doorway it currently had. He’d gone in to explore it a couple of times, but until he had a way to actually light up the inside (he could never find the light switches in the dark) he wasn’t willing to start setting up in there. Maybe he could try to find some battery operated lights? Shit, even just a lighter would work.

After eating, he once again popped out into the main store to peruse their selection of lights that didn’t need electricity to run. There wasn’t terribly much, but he did manage to make off with a couple of lighters and some tea lights.

Eh, this was a tiny store anyway. He knew there was a mall nearby that would have everything he was looking for one way or another.

For now, the tea lights and lighters would work. He could make a cozy little nest in that place in the morning, he was sure. Until he could get a better door on the place he’d be finding the most secluded corner he could and trying to keep it safe while he worked on the other bit.

He eventually popped into the freezer to check on the icepack, and finding it was well on its way to being solid but wasn’t quite there, he decided not to bother with leaving tonight. This was the safest place he had to sleep, for the moment, and as long as he left the front area’s lights on nothing would be any the wiser that he was in here. The monsters didn’t touch anything that didn’t look like it had been disturbed, thank God.

He laid out one of the sleeping bags behind some boxes of stuff off in the corner of the back room and rolled the other into a pillow. It wasn’t much, but it’d be the most comfortable night he’d spent in a few weeks. He hadn’t laid on anything but cold floor since… He wasn’t sure when. It had been a while.

He made one final round of the store before the sun went down, then retreated into the back room. He wouldn’t be caught dead gallivanting around in the light when it was dark outside. That was a one-way ticket to a monster attack.

So he did what he’d been doing every day since he figured out the monsters were more active after sundown―he laid down in his safe little area and tried to think as little as possible. This time, he was much more successful in the implied attempt at relaxing. He was warm, the second sleeping bag made for a pretty comfortable pillow, and secluded behind the boxes where he wouldn’t be seen he felt… Safe. Untouchable, you know?

He had two doors and a tall stack of boxes between him and any monsters.

He had it fucking made in here.

And eventually he drifted off to sleep, thinking about that.

* * *

Getting out of his warm cocoon in the morning was a struggle he was embarrassingly unprepared for. He’d underestimated the power of a nice, warm place to sleep.

But, eventually, he was able to rouse himself and start packing up his things. The icepack in the lunchbox was frozen, and the lunchbox was large enough that he could pack plenty of cold drinks and food into it. It was his little makeshift fridge, for the time being. He wasn’t even ashamed that he put a couple of energy drinks in there next to the milk and fruit juice. Sometimes, these past weeks, he could have really used a boost in energy. Now he had the potential for one.

The first place he headed was the building he wanted to turn into his new home. Best to scope it out again now, before he made any concrete plans. If someone else had taken up residence, he was more than willing to share if they were. Lord knew that fighting each other wasn’t the key to getting out of this mess.

The sun was just barely in the sky when he slunk as quietly as he could out of the store and into the alley leading to his prospective home. He stuck to the shadows when he could, avoiding the occasional monster, and managed to make his way there without issues. It was refreshingly easy in comparison to some of his escapes from monsters.

He flicked on a lighter and headed inside.

In the dim light, he saw it would make a great hiding place, indeed. A makeshift wall here in front of the door to create a hallway would provide more shelter from the outside… He explored the main room for a while before ducking through a door at the back of the room, behind what appeared to be a bar. This room, which was fairly barren at the moment, would be perfect for his temporary base. There was a refrigerator, a sink, a stove, ample counter space… A table set up in the center that could easily double as a wall to protect him at night. It looked sturdy.

He reached out to flick on the light and sighed in relief when it actually flickered on overhead. This must have been some kind of breakroom.

The refrigerator was not humming away as refrigerators do when they run, which caused some minor concern until he realized it had been unplugged.

Plugging it back in, he was relieved to find that it worked perfectly.

He unloaded everything he had that needed to be or could be refrigerated except for a single energy drink. He’d need it today.

He laid out his sleeping bags again so that he wouldn’t have to carry them, and quietly placed his clothes and non-perishable food items in the cabinets under the counter. The kettle found its place atop said counter.

Once he was suitably assured that he’d emptied his bag and wouldn’t be weighed down, he clicked the light off and left the room, shutting the door tightly behind him. He pushed a barstool from the bar in front of it, so he’d know if anyone went into the room, and made his way blindly back to the doorway that was little more than a rectangle of light in comparison to the dark room.

The trip to the mall was blessedly uneventful in that he didn’t even have to dodge any monsters, and was able to get inside without breaking any windows or doors. His first stop was another clothing store, this one containing some somewhat more sturdy clothes that wouldn’t immediately draw attention to him. The others were… Rather colorful. These were muted, better for days like this when he would be out and about. He took only a couple of pairs of pants and shirts, careful not to go overboard. He had a hell of a ‘shopping’ trip ahead of him, after all.

The next store was a ‘modern fad’ type store, which he only visited because he remembered it had had blankets the last time he was here. It might not now, considering the world ended like six weeks ago and he couldn’t have been the first one to come here looking for shit like this, but it was worth a shot.

They did, in fact, have some blankets. They had a few large comforters related to a movie he actually quite liked with a simple design as well as a lot of small unassuming, single-color throw blankets. Seeing as it was all useful, he packed two of the large comforters and several of the throw blankets into his bag. If nothing else it could help him cushion the floor and make the space feel more homey.

Since he was already there, and a lot of the current fads at the store seemed to be things that he was into, he decided to continue looking around for a while… You know, partially for nostalgia and partially to see if there was anything else he had an excuse for grabbing.

He ended up grabbing a couple of mugs, another new bag to help him carry all of this, a few strings of fairy lights, some more candles, three throw pillows (they were all he could fit in the extra bag), and, after processing that winter would begin its rapid approach in a couple more weeks and he might not have time to prepare for it  _ later, _ gloves, socks, a new hoodie, a scarf, and a hat. As he was leaving, he also saw a pack of sticky hooks he could put on the walls to hang his lights, and he just pocketed those.

He didn’t have terribly much room in either of his bags after all of that, so he grabbed yet another, rearranged the other two, and made his way to the next store. As this one was more of a home-type store, he was able to grab some sheets almost right out of the gates. The more sheets and blankets he had, the better, he thought. Especially with winter coming up. He couldn’t afford to skimp on anything that could keep him warm, you know?

With that done, though, he decided to grab some dinnerware and silverware, since he wasn’t interested in eating off of the same paper plate too many times, or with the same plastic fork or spoon too many times. He grabbed a saucepan and a skillet while he was in the area, along with a big spoon and a spatula. It would do for the time being. He’d like to fully set the place up someday, he’d admit, but right now he needed essentials, and he didn’t really need much more than what he’d grabbed for kitchen-related items.

Three bags quite heavy and quite full, he resigned himself to having to head back now. If he hadn’t spent too much time, he could probably chance a second trip to see if he could get anything else… Maybe some more comforters and pillows? That homey store had had plenty of pillows and a variety of bedding.

Sighing, he made his way back home and thanked his lucky stars that the monsters seemed to be rather disinterested in any chaos today, as he’d only seen any right after the sun came up. He was able to get home without any hiccups―and it was funny, he thought, how quickly this place had become home―and make his way to his temporary room with nary a hair out of place.

For the time being, since he planned to go back to the mall after all, he laid his prior spoils out on the table to be sorted out later. The saucepan and skillet made it to the stove, at least.

He all but sprinted back to the mall.

Five weeks ago he wouldn’t have been able to sprint half that trip, so at least he had  _ that _ to thank the apocalypse for. He was finally gaining some endurance.

The very first thing he grabbed on his arrival back at that homey store was something he hadn’t even seen the first time he’d swept the place―a mattress topper. He could use that kind of cushioning. It would definitely help stop the constant aching in his back if he had some proper support.

Next he went for another comforter, this one heavy and filled with goose down. It would  _ definitely _ be going on top of his sleeping bag once winter came. And then he grabbed a couple of real pillows. A couple more quilts and blankets made it into his bags before he wandered off to other parts of the store again, which ended up with him snagging some bath towels.

Unsure what else he needed from this store, he kind of just shrugged and headed to another one.

Just for laughs he went walking around in one of those smarmy ‘gourmet’ food joints that had moved in right before everything went to shit and ended up leaving with a heavier bag and lots of non-perishable food items from the kitchen.

_ Remind me to raid that place again later, _ he thought at himself with a snort.

After one final sweep of the mall and just a few more items, he headed out once more. It was just then nearing noon, which was surprising, but not necessarily unwanted. He liked having the rest of the day ahead of himself to work on setting up his space and figuring out what else he really needed to get. He knew he ought to start stocking up on goods for the winter, but the freezer could only hold so much, so he’d have to resort to a lot of store-bought ramen and canned goods.

When he arrived home he unpacked his food into the cabinets with the rest of it and felt some sliver of anxiety leave him at the sight of so much food. Neku was, after all, a very pessimistic sort of guy, and he’d been starting to think he was going to straight up starve to death in the near future.

Hopefully by spring this shitty situation would be over and he’d be able to go back to living a semi-normal life, but for now he was content with having half-full cabinets and a half-full fridge that he could easily fill up after a trip to the nearest supermarket.

Food taken care of, he unpacked the rest of his spoils and got to work planning out his temporary living space. Eventually, again, he hoped to be using the entire building to its best possible potential, but for now this breakroom was his home and he needed to figure his shit out.

The first thing he did was string his lights around the room on the floor, rather than hanging them in here yet, and then move his sleeping bags. He tore open the mattress topper’s packaging and laid the thing out on the floor where his sleeping bags had previously been. It covered a larger portion of the floor than they had, alone, of course, but that was more than alright. A couple of sheets were laid down over top of it, then two of his comforters, followed by most of his throw blankets, and finally his sleeping bag.

After lying down to test the softness, he sighed contentedly. Yes, this was good, and he had extra comforters and sheets and blankets ready to turn this into something less like a bed and more like a glorified nest.

It took him a long moment to convince himself to get up, but when he finally did, he got to work setting up his extra supplies as makeshift borders around his bed. He ended up with a hell of a set of tiny, protective walls around it, with all of the pillows up against the wall at the head of the bed. He threw his actual pillows up there, too, then surveyed the remaining supplies. He’d pretty much made the walls around the bed as high and as plush as he felt he needed to, and he still had some sheets and blankets.

He’d just keep them as spares, for now, he guessed.

He put them away in one of the empty cabinets.

He rearranged his lights a bit, then, before moving on to putting his new clothes away with the old ones and picking an over-counter cabinet to put his set of plates and bowls and cups in.

Looking at the surprisingly empty counter he thought,  _ I should go hijack the microwave out of that store. It’s not like anyone else is using it. _

And boy was it a tempting thought. It was just that microwaves were heavy, and…

Actually, you know what?

Fuck it.

He went back to the store and hijacked the microwave, because there was no point in not doing it. His primary reason for not doing it (the whole monster issue) wasn’t exactly doing much in the way of slowing him down or stopping him today, anyway, and he should really take advantage of that while he still could.

Feeling rather bold, he also went to the nearest supermarket and raided their supplies… Which ended up being significantly heavier than the microwave, actually, but he wasn’t complaining. He wasn’t complaining in the  _ slightest. _ Even if it took him a good half-hour to make the trip back home when the trip to the market had only taken half that.

Putting away his groceries, he let himself relax and be optimistic for the future when he saw his food cabinets and fridge full, and freezer about three quarters of the way there.

He even put away the food he’d packed for his trip, untouched, and chose to actually cook himself something. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon, so he let himself eat a little more than he normally would have given the situation. He shouldn’t be skipping too many meals.

Collapsing into a chair at the table, he, after who knew how long (three days), pulled his phone from his pocket and turned it on. Now that he had somewhere safe, he didn’t feel at all bothered with using it―he could actually plug it in every day, now, if all went well.

He filtered through the automated emails he was still getting to get rid of the notifications, checked his sparse social media accounts to see if there were any updates from  _ literally anyone else, _ and spent a good twenty minutes just mindlessly playing dumb phone games that he had missed so,  _ so _ much in the two weeks since the phone’s last charge. He’d had it in extended battery saver mode and kept it off if he didn’t need it since then, but he could actually plug it in, now, so…

He also spent a while writing out a brief-ish summary of what he’d done today in the notes on his phone, alongside the other ones he’d already made. He tried to keep track of what he was doing when he could, and made sure to mark the date on each note just so he could keep track. Just so he’d have something to remind himself later.

He was still buzzing with energy, desperate to do something while he had the chance.

But there wasn’t really anything else to do except explore, and he’d prefer to wait and do that until tomorrow morning, because at this point he’d end up leaving a light on too late into the night and attract a monster. It wasn’t worth the risk just yet. He’d figure something out for how to keep himself occupied in the time being.

Eventually, seeing it was just about nightfall, he shut off the overhead light and plugged in his string lights, smiling at the soft and much warmer-toned light covering the room. He was sure it’d look even better once he found a good room to make a permanent residence of and actually hung them up. His phone found its place on the counter, plugged in to charge overnight.

He flopped bodily into his bed, folding easily into his sleeping bag atop the plush surface. It felt heavenly in comparison to the floor, of course, and it didn’t take very long at all for him to fall right to sleep. Tomorrow would be eventful, he was sure.


	2. Chapter 2

> **The Coming Winter**
> 
> **Week Eight, Day 1**
> 
> **The Fear-Soaked Streets, Shibuya**

There was a sharp chill in the air, and Neku was beginning, faintly, to worry for any other survivors in the city who may not have somewhere to hide. Somewhere warm to stay.

If it wouldn’t attract the monsters, he’d try to advertise this place as somewhere safe to come and hunker down during the cold months. He wasn’t the most social person alive even before this, of course, but he wasn’t  _ heartless. _ He didn’t want anyone freezing to death out there when the temperature dropped.

Of course he knew there wasn’t much he could do to stop it if someone  _ did _ end up freezing to death out there, but if there was any way he could keep some of the people safe, he’d do it. He’d power through a winter surrounded by strangers if he had to.

He was flitting through the increasingly less monster-infected streets, making for his home with more blankets and some cleaning supplies tucked away into his bag. By this point he had enough supplies to provide at least two other people comfortable accommodations within his home, including two other mattress pads. He spent most of his time stocking up for the coming winter, after all. There wasn’t much he could do in terms of cleaning the rooms on the upper floor until he’d amassed some decent cleaning supplies and figured out what to do with the abandoned items in them, and it was definitely higher on his list of priorities to make sure that he had enough supplies to last the winter.

He definitely had the canned goods for it.

He was nearly home when he heard someone panting and the sound of stumbling footsteps in an alleyway a few feet ahead of him. He came to a stop, stalling just at the edge of the alley and peeking in at the same time he heard a hollow, metallic thud.

About halfway down the alley was a girl about his age wearing a floppy sweater that was falling off her shoulders and a pair of practically threadbare capris. She was bracing herself on a dumpster, taking gasping breaths and clutching her side. Blood covered her hand, seeping through her fingers and running in tiny rivulets―dripping down to the ground. Her brown hair was short and messy, falling in her face over her crooked glasses, and her brows were furrowed in what seemed to be pain.

There was a trail of blood droplets down the alley.

Neku swallowed, stepping out slowly. “Hey,” He said, and she jumped, eyes snapping to him. He held up his hands in surrender, trying to appear nonthreatening―it wasn’t hard, seeing as he was about her size, wearing a dark blue sweater that absolutely swallowed him, and aware he was probably giving her some variation of the puppy-dog eyes, “Are you― Do you want help?”

“Who are you?” Was her first question, body tense and eyes scared.

“My name is Neku,” He answered without hesitation, and boy if past-him could see him taking the first step like this, “What’s your name?”

She regarded him for a long moment before, finally, slumping against the dumpster and sighing out, “Shiki. But I don’t think there’s much you can do to help, Neku.”

“I’d like to try, if you’d let me,” He took a hesitant step into the alleyway, shifting his bags.

“I won’t stop you,” She gave an aborted attempt at a laugh, “I’d appreciate anything you can manage, honestly.”

So he approached, preemptively flinching before he even touched her. He wasn’t big on physical contact, but… Well. There wasn’t much other choice, here.

After sparing a moment to rearrange his bags, he ducked under her arm, holding it steady over his shoulders while he looped his other arm around her waist, supporting her weight. She leaned on him heavily, breathing hard, and he felt an ache start kicking up in his gut in about the same general area Shiki was bleeding from. He ignored it for now, urging the feeling away.

It stopped.

This was one of the other things he was having some trouble coming to terms with.

… When he touched someone, if he wasn’t careful, he could read their thoughts, feel what they felt, and sometimes even heal their wounds. It had only started after the world Ended, but the few people he’d touched since then had easily gotten right into his head―or, rather, he’d gotten into theirs. He’d even gotten rid of one’s headache just by brushing shoulders with them while he was leaving the area they met in.

_ ―too nice. Where are we going? I’m not sure I trust this. My stomach hur― _

He pulled forcibly out of the girl’s thoughts.

“I’ve got a hideout near here,” He told her as he helped her walk down the road, acknowledging the unspoken question he’d overheard, “And if nothing else I can give you somewhere to be comfortable for a while.”

She sort of nodded, breath wheezing out of her and rendering her unable to speak while they hustled along.

_ ―dangerous? I don’t get why he’s willing to do this. He could get hurt. There are monsters  _ **_everywhere,_ ** _ he― _

Again, he pulled out of her thoughts. Gritting his teeth, he tried to focus on getting her there alive and without further harm. He started up a mental mantra of,  _ I will get her there alive, we won’t get attacked. I will get her there alive, we won’t get attacked. _

And when they arrived at the empty doorway at last, he thanked his lucky stars he’d been right. He led her in and helped her to sit on a barstool at the bar.

“I’ll be right back,” He told her.

And then, disappearing into his makeshift bedroom, he discarded his bags to be gone through later and popped into the cabinet he was using as a sort-of closet to grab her something else to wear. If he could help her, she’d need a new sweater at least.

He grabbed one of the least ugly ones he could―a plain black number that looked to be about her size. He tossed it onto the counter and hunted for a pair of pants and some socks, too. Folding the clothes up, he stacked them atop each other on the counter and sighed. He had few options here, really.

He could  _ attempt _ (and it was important he emphasize that it would only be an attempt) to bandage her up well enough to stem the bleeding, he could let her continue bleeding, or… Or he could try to heal her.

The issue was that when he’d taken that other person’s headache, he’d gotten a headache as a result. When he’d healed another’s scraped knee, his knee had miraculously become scraped.

He took the ailments he healed into himself, and though the headache and scraped knee had resolved fairly quickly, this was a different story. Whatever was wrong with her was clearly doing a number on her. He wouldn’t doubt she’d been stabbed. The only question was whether it was a human or a monster that did it. Was she dying? Would healing her kill him? Was he willing to risk it?

… He was willing to risk it.

He sighed again, took the stack of clothes, and exited the room but left the light on so that she could see and so could he. He sat the stack on the bar next to her, which made her jump.

“Okay, so, this is gonna be weird,” He warned, but that was all the warning he gave.

She hadn’t placed her hands back over her wound yet, so he just grabbed one of her shoulders to brace her and then pressed his other palm to the wound. She gasped in pain and her hands came up to grip his forearms, nails digging into the skin. He ignored it.

_ “What the fuck is he doing? God that  _ **_hurts!_ ** _ Why is he doing this? I don’t understand what he’s doing why is he touching me―” _

He didn’t bother pulling out of her thoughts. He just let his brow furrow as the pain began in his stomach again. She was staring at him and she was wondering why he looked like  _ he _ was in pain, and then a gasp was falling from her lips and he was sucking in a harsh breath and  _ fuck _ did that hurt. She’d been stabbed, alright. He felt the pain lance through him and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. Under his hand her wound sealed closed―gone like it had never happened in the first place.

Meanwhile her thoughts turned bewildered more than frantic. He pulled back, withdrawing his hands even when it made her nails temporarily bite in harder. The moment the contact was severed, her thoughts vanished from his mind and he fell back against the barstool behind him. He braced himself on the stool and the bar and tried to breathe deeply.

God, yeah, she’d been right. That  _ hurt. _

He scrunched his eyes shut and tried not to whine or even breathe too hard.

“... Neku?” She asked after a long moment, and by then the pain in his gut was starting to fade already, “Are you alright?”

He peeked his eyes open and, ever so elegantly, said, “Ow.” Rather than actually answering the question at first. When she sort of winced and he was able to get a better grasp on his own words, he said, “Yeah, I’m good. Shit, that hurts. What happened?”

“What ha― I don’t know what happened, you just―”

“No, no, I know what happened to me.” He cut her off, “What happened to  _ you?” _

She paused.

Then, after a second, “I got caught out by one of those monsters.” She said, “And it was apparently immune to a wonderful power called _pocket_ _knife._ I was not.”

He blinked. Then he laughed. “You tripped and stabbed yourself, didn’t you?” He asked.

“Maybe.” She flushed, looking a little indignant, “But to be fair I was―”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” He assured her, “That sounds like something I’d do.”

She stared at him, lips starting to turn up a little bit.

Then her eyes seemed to draw downwards, going wide. Her half-smile dropped, “Neku, you’re bleeding.”

“And you aren’t anymore,” He pointed out.

Her hands flew to where her wound had been, and she frantically pulled up her shirt only to find that he was right. There was no wound. She wasn’t bleeding.

He didn’t need to hear her thoughts to know she was frantically trying to put two and two together. She probably didn’t understand how he’d done it, didn’t want to think about it too much but wasn’t able to just let it go. He knew how that was. He’d spent a long time trying to make sense of this weird power, but at this point he was just… There was no point. He wasn’t going to figure it out. He could only learn how to use it and occasionally experiment with it―like this, for instance. If it didn’t kill him, that’d be cool.

He could feel a strange pull at the deepest part of the wound, and he chose to ignore it aside from scrunching up his nose a little.

“You…” Shiki stumbled, “I. You healed me? By taking the wound yourself?”

“Pretty much.”

“But  _ how?” _

“Believe me, Shiki, if I knew, I’d tell you.”

She stared.

He realized, dimly, that the wound was already mending itself. He could feel it pulling together and rapidly scabbing over.

Cool.

He pushed unsteadily off of the barstool and stumbled back toward his temporary room, saying, “You can change into those clothes, if you want―they’re mine, but I haven’t worn them. I figured you might want something not covered in blood.”

Once he was out of her direct line of sight, he pulled his shirt over his head and looked down at the wound. It didn’t look  _ bad _ , exactly. It looked like it had been nasty, before. Probably deep. But now it was scabbed over and just mildly achy and he wasn’t willing to look a gift horse like that in the mouth. As long as he wasn’t dying or spending the next several days healing from this, he was fine. He had stuff to do, especially if he had a guest.

He’d seen a washing machine and dryer upstairs, tucked away at the end of a hallway in a small closet. He could do laundry.

“I can wash your old stuff if you do change,” He offered, without leaving the room, after he’d wiped his stomach down and pulled on a new shirt, “I was needing to do laundry anyway, so it wouldn’t be any trouble.”

“Why aren’t you more worried about the fact that you’re bleeding from a stab wound right now?” Shiki’s half-disbelieving voice floated through the door. “That seems like a bigger issue than needing to do laundry!”

“I heal from wounds I take from people pretty quick,” He said, nonchalant, “It’s not even bleeding now.”

There was a silence.

“I, uh. I’m finished changing, if that’s what you were waiting on.” Shiki finally intoned.

He gathered up his small pile of dirty laundry and exited the room, “I was, actually. Didn’t want to walk in on you.”

“I appreciate that,” She watched him pick up the clothes from the counter with a confused look, “You’re… A pretty nice guy, you know that?”

“I wasn’t near as nice before everything went to shit,” He told her with a snort, “But I’m not a total piece of shit, so I feel very much obligated to help my fellow humans out when I can… And I value privacy, so I’m not gonna go out of my way to invade yours.”

She smiled at him and he felt kind of warm, but he knew it wouldn’t last. He always liked people  _ at first, _ or liked them in small doses. He wasn’t going to get too used to her smiling at him, nor was he going to make too much of an effort to be friendly with her all the time.

He cleared his throat, “So, if you happen to wanna stay, I’ve got plenty of room. I can’t stand the idea of anyone being out there alone and cold when I have this warm-ish building and a bunch of blankets to offer in order to help out.”

He’d just been thinking about this, anyway, hadn’t he? He was willing to share his space with her for now. It wouldn’t be forever, and she seemed nice. He hadn’t gotten a bad feeling from being in her brain like he had with most of the other survivors he’d met so far. There was always just this feeling to them that he didn’t like.

He guessed “nasty, self-serving asshole” just had a particular feeling to it.

“If it really wouldn’t be any trouble,” She said, looking hesitant at the offer, “I’d really like somewhere to stay, at least until the weather gets warmer. I kinda suck at doing anything but sewing and scavenging food―I really don’t think I’d make it out there on my own.”

“Nah, it wouldn’t be any trouble. I’ve been stocking up on pretty much everything.” He moved toward the stairs, then glanced at the door, “Could you close that door?”

She immediately moved to do so. He could still hear her in the ensuing darkness, of course.

“There should be a lightswitch near the door,” He provided, “If you need light.”

After a moment, she found it, and the lights above the bar flicked on. “There we go,” She said, “It gets real dark in here, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I don’t like leaving too many lights on. Attracts too many monsters.”

She nodded her agreement and, strangely, followed him up the stairs when he started up them.

“You can pick a room, if you want,” He told her as he made for the laundry closet, “They all need cleaned up before they can be used to any decent effect, but I got most of the cleaning supplies I’d need during my raid today.”

“Your raid?”

“I’m pretty good at scavenging,” He shrugged, “I spend most of my days stocking up, like I said. Gotta raid stores to stock up.”

They were quiet, and she left him alone to do laundry while she wandered down the hallway to investigate the rooms. It was bright in the hallways, with the windows at each end letting light in and the overhead lights buzzing away. She seemed to be fairly quiet, generally, and Neku appreciated it immensely. Especially when she disappeared into one of the rooms and he was able to head downstairs and return back up the stairs with the detergent he’d nabbed a few days ago before she ever emerged, and only her footsteps told him she was still moving around. It was nice.

Quiet, nonverbal reminders of someone’s presence were far preferable to someone talking his ear off forever.

He got the laundry started up and decided to follow her lead, investigating the rooms in this hall again. There was another level above this one, with more rooms, which he hadn’t looked into yet. He could do it later. There was also rooftop access, which he  _ had _ checked out one morning, and it was a great place for a garden, if that ended up being necessary next year. He wouldn’t rule it out completely no matter how much he hoped things would be done by spring.

“I like this one,” He finally heard Shiki say, and he popped his head out of the room he was in to see her right across the hall from him. She was smiling a little, rubbing the back of her neck, “I’m sure the furniture in here needs thrown out, but it’s still a nice room.”

He headed across the hall to investigate, surveying the general layout of the room. Carpet floor, old mattress and frame shoved into the corner, no drapes and a lot of natural light. There was a door he knew was probably a bathroom and a set of two that were probably a closet. There was even a sort of kitchenette, sans a stove.

This place must have been some kind of hotel and bar or something, he guessed.

“Looks good,” He told her, honestly, “Furniture  _ definitely _ needs thrown out since I don’t trust  _ any _ mattress that old, but it shouldn’t be hard to get the room cleaned up.” Another critical sweep of his eyes, “We could probably get it done today, if you wanted.”

“If you’re not hurt now,” She said, with a hint of a smile, “I’d like that.”

He shot her a smile and thought, maybe, he could learn to get along with her. She really didn’t seem that bad.

They worked together to get the mattress and boxspring out of the room and down the stairs. He dragged them, alone, out the back door of the building into a secluded alley. An armchair followed, because that thing could be infested with anything and they’d never know. He could probably tear the things apart for scraps or some kind of fire, if necessary.

Shiki discovered a vacuum hidden in the laundry closet while he was dragging the armchair out the back door, and she was hard at work vacuuming the room she’d picked out.

“So,” She said over the din of the vacuum, “Am I just gonna sleep on the floor?”

“I’ve got a mattress topper that you can use as a cushion and more sheets and various types of blankets than you could ever need.” He replied, “So yeah, you’ll be on the floor, but it’ll be the comfiest stay on the floor you’ll ever have.”

She laughed and nodded her understanding, and he figured he probably ought to figure out which room he was going to commandeer.

He ended up picking the one closest to the laundry closet, just two doors down from Shiki and on the other side of the hall. All the rooms were set up more or less the same, but some of them were really just… They had a better feeling to them. Some of them felt kind of dangerous, but this one and Shiki’s felt right somehow.

When Shiki had finished vacuuming, she helped him to move out the furniture from his chosen room and handed off the vacuum so that he could deal with his floor. Meanwhile she wiped down her counters and the inside of the minifridge in her room. He did the same once she was done.

Then came the important questions―namely, Shiki began asking where the blankets and sheets were and how in the world she was going to set up this makeshift bed.

He promptly carried up the mattress topper and a stack of bedding. He had to come back with another just so he was sure he had made them even. Aside from him having more pillows, they were thankfully on level ground.

He showed her how to set up the bed and had her try it, and she melted right into it once she got a chance. He laughed and off-handedly mentioned they’d have to sleep in the dark tonight because he didn’t have any curtains for them to put on their windows. It wasn’t until he explained that he preferred to sleep with a little bit of light and that it got  _ very _ dark at night lately that she understood.

“Yeah,” She said, “I prefer to at least be able to see to go to the bathroom if I need to.”

She continued to lay there, and he went back downstairs. He took the pillows off of his bed and laid them out on the table before simply folding the whole setup in half and hefting it to carry it up the stairs. He didn’t feel like spending too much time fixing it.

Shiki laughed as he passed her room with it.

He laid out his bed and adjusted things where it was needed before going back for his pillows.

When he finally managed to get everything he’d grabbed on his raid today sorted out, he spent a while scrubbing his bathroom until he felt it was clean enough to use and vowed to himself he was taking a hot shower tomorrow. Lord knew he needed one and he’d grabbed the necessary junk for that today, too.

It was still early enough in the day (sunset was still an hour from now) that he felt comfortable warning Shiki he was leaving and jogging to the nearest large store. He snagged primarily items he usually passed up, such as a large plank of plywood to cover the front doorway with and some curtains he could put up until he could get some decent ones from that homey store at the mall. He was more than handy enough to put up curtains, thank God. It didn’t take a genius.

He had to hurry back with more pep in his step than anyone carrying a six foot long hunk of plywood and a heavy backpack should be able to hurry with.

He got back with just enough time to spare before sunset that he was able to put up the hunk of plywood against the front doorway, bracing it with a folding table he’d found in a back room a while ago. He also managed to put up their curtains in both of their rooms and shut off the hallway lights.

He cooked dinner and he and Shiki ate silently in what had for the past two weeks been his bedroom and was now going to be more like a communal kitchen. The way that Shiki tucked into it told him she hadn’t eaten very well lately. But that was cool. He could feed her no problem. He was going to raid the supermarket again tomorrow for refrigerated goods, since they both had minifridges in their rooms.

He managed, by some miracle, to sleep in his new room. He hadn’t expected to be moving out of the kitchen for another week at least, but… Well. Guests were a good motivator. He’d rather be up here as well, where it was safer for both of them. If she needed anything she could come straight to him two doors down and if she was in any trouble, hey, she was two doors down and he could go see what was wrong. It just made sense. More sense than staying downstairs, anyway.

He woke cocooned in his sleeping bag and still shivering away in spite of the warmth. It was cold enough he could almost warrant bringing out the down comforter… He’d have to grab one of those for Shiki, today. That meant a trip to the supermarket and a trip to the mall, and he had no complaints about either. He could pick up some curtains while he was at the homey store, and maybe some clothes for Shiki as well. He didn’t want to make her keep sharing his with him.

At breakfast, after he had a shower, he asked her what size she wore so he could grab her something while he was out. She answered off-handedly and he was glad he hadn’t offended her, because she would be  _ insufferable _ if he offended her. He hated existing around people after he accidentally said the wrong thing, particularly if they didn’t believe him when he said he wasn’t trying to be insensitive when he said it.

“So do you not want me to go with you or…?” Shiki asked as he got ready to move the plywood ‘door’ and head out.

“If you want to come you can,” He shrugged, “But I’m used to doing this alone, so…”

Some small hint of tension drained from her and she sort of smiled, “No, I’m good staying here, I just…”

“You just don’t want to be useless or unwanted?” He suggested, quirking a brow.

She nodded, cheeks burning.

“If you’re that worried about doing something, you could clean?” He cocked his head to the side, “Or cook something, or whatever else you would want to do. It doesn’t matter to me, because I’m not going to be upset whether you do something or not.”

She sort of nodded again, and he left.

He returned a good hour later with even  _ more _ canned goods and jerky and other non-perishables, along with as much refrigerated stuff as he could get that was still useable. Mostly, now, that amounted to energy drinks and bottled water, along with some foods that would cross the bridge to “questionable” very soon. If they had a separate freezer (or two, or three) he could make off with a lot more useable foods than he had, but alas. He wasn’t bold enough to try to make off with one from the nearby stores, because he just wasn’t strong enough to get it here quickly. Those things were heavy.

In the time he’d been gone, Shiki had opened the thick drapes on the two big windows on the front of the building to let in some light and was hard at work scrubbing away at the table at a booth in front of one of them. She greeted him, winded, and kept working. He went to put the food away in the main fridge and cabinets for now.

He left again and she didn’t even respond, and he thought, again, that he could get used to her and really learn to get along with her.

It was only their second day knowing each other, and they already had the hang of casual silence―it never felt awkward or tense. That was a blessing. It made her  _ much _ easier to live with, no matter how brief the time had been.

He returned, this time, with new clothes for his new housemate, several more down comforters, as many pillows and throw pillows as he could cram into his bags, enough blackout curtains for their rooms and the hallway windows, and more fairy lights and sticky hooks. He’d even managed to grab actual winter coats for the two of them. That would be helpful, especially if he couldn’t get any heating working in this place. Lord knew having heating would be a blessing, but he wasn’t sure if it was already on or if it would have to be  _ turned _ on.

He was handy enough to put up curtains, but that was about the extent, at this point in time. He could learn more later. As he went on.

Shiki pretty much had the entire main room (which, in the light, he could finally tell was, indeed, either a restaurant or a bar) scrubbed clean, tile floors all but sparkling and all debris apparently swept away out the back door. It was a bigger room than he’d ever realized, and it looked very nice all cleaned up. He could see it making a very good communal hangout if ever they ended up with more people here. There was so much room to add other stuff, after all. Stuff to make it more homey and comfortable.

Speaking of making things homey, Neku was starting to seriously consider picking up some storage/organizational junk from the store next time he was there.

He and Shiki spent the rest of the day scourging the rest of the rooms on their level of all furniture and grime. The pile of beds and chairs in the back alley was rather hulking already. They still had a whole level of the building to clean out, but with some work they managed to straighten the junk in the back up enough to be sure there would be room for other stuff. Dear  _ God, _ the  _ stacks _ of boxsprings and mattresses and the objectively ominous “conga line of armchairs” against the back of the next-door building’s back wall... And, yes, the conga line bit was something Shiki had actually said to him, and he was absolutely still laughing about it.

By nightfall both of their rooms and the hallway were outfitted in blackout curtains and Neku felt fairly comfortable spending a while hanging up his string lights after the sun had gone down. The two of them ate dinner after that and then retired to bed and Neku couldn’t help teasing Shiki about the conga line thing even as he headed past her room. She just laughed and threw a pillow at him, which he threw back before she could close the door.


End file.
